


A Patch of Blue Sky

by furiosity



Category: Kuroko no Basuke | Kuroko's Basketball
Genre: Alternate Universe - Cyberpunk, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-10
Updated: 2014-05-10
Packaged: 2018-01-24 07:03:50
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,813
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1595924
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/furiosity/pseuds/furiosity
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which Aomine and Kagami are professional VR gamers instead of basketball players but everything else is pretty much the same. Other than the maid outfit. Well, and they're like twenty-eight.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Patch of Blue Sky

**Author's Note:**

  * Translation into Русский available: [Кусочек синего неба](https://archiveofourown.org/works/3404990) by [CrazyJill](https://archiveofourown.org/users/CrazyJill/pseuds/CrazyJill)



> Happy AoKaga day! I have chosen to celebrate by being 100% AoKaga trash. I'm sorry for any mistakes, I suddenly decided to write this on Thursday from just a rough outline so it's not the most polished thing out there. Dedicated to everyone in the AoKaga landfill.

_Lose the battle if you must. Win the war._

Aomine stares at the freshly-sprayed inscription on the club sign -- a massive slab of black marble right next to the entrance. The flattened beer can he was kicking down the road on his way here takes the opportunity to roll away into the gutter. Overhead, a patrol drone hums its way across the clouds.

Was that there last time he came by? Probably not. He would have remembered such a stupid sign. What the fuck kind of mentality are the handlers trying to promote in their players -- oh, it's okay if you lose once, just try your best next time? Pathetic.

_Is Kagami really going to be okay staying with these assholes?_ he thinks, flashing his ID tag at the bouncer once he's past the first set of reinforced glass doors. Not that he gives a shit, but it would be a shame if Kagami became boring because of his club's stupid policies.

_Maybe they're trying to force him to retire._ The thought hangs over his head as he passes the mainframe server racks and then clangs his way up the spiral staircase that's smelled like stale fryer grease ever since Aomine can remember. 

Ten years ago, he paid his first visit when Kagami first showed up on the professional VR gamer circuit out of nowhere, like a smack in the face, and started tearing his way up through the ranks. _Has it really been that long?_

Time is a weird thing for Aomine. He's stopped measuring his time in days and weeks long ago; there are only tournaments and the time spent training for them. VR lets players exploit the full range of their bodies' capabilities but it's no substitute for real movement, and your performance in VR will only be as good as your meatspace physical specs. So pros have to train hard between full dives, eat well, not catch anything stronger than a cold, and abstain from addictives, including alcohol. Back in the industry's infancy, the betting got so big so fast that the fucking government put medical overseeing committees in place. Chemical performance enhancement and you're dead. Who the hell cares what year it is?

Kagami's floor is quiet; the door to his quarters stands open. As always, inside it's neat and minimalist: fitted chair, server rack for player specs, and a couple of decks for social networking and whatever else Kagami does in cyberspace. Fat cushions piled in the corner for visitors. Snack shelf and fridge. A far cry from your typical lair of ancient takeout containers and piss bottles. 

Aomine piles a bunch of cushions against the wall opposite the door, so he can see Kagami as soon as he comes in. Since they were formally introduced, he's always come by before big events to try and get under Kagami's skin a little. Kagami's the only elite who reacts to his taunts, even after all this time. Aomine gets a lot of shit for it from Kagami's fans when the handlers release their pre-game activity logs, but he figures if Kagami didn't want him coming around, he'd tell downstairs to revoke his access privileges. Besides, _his_ fans love it.

Aomine grabs himself a sports drink from the fridge and settles back against his cushion mountain, already bored. Kagami's gear is right there on top of the chair -- he really shouldn't leave it lying around like that. Nothing's stopping Aomine from messing with the settings a bit, like giving all the bad guy NPCs kitten faces or something, just to fuck him up a little. Unlike chemicals, hacking is allowed -- but anyone who messes with an elite player's hardware is asking for a dive in popularity ratings and instant loss of sponsors. Still, it's stupid of Kagami to tempt fate like that.

Aomine makes a mental note to psych out Kagami by telling him he tampered with his gear, and let Kagami go nuts trying to find what he did. He turns his attention to the fun shelf instead, and his eyes are instantly drawn to a plain white deck with no branding, just a little blue dot drawn crudely on the side with a marker. Kagami's always been an above-board type -- never did a thing to jeopardise his position, because there are plenty of people just waiting to fill his shoes. So an unlabelled, possibly unsanctioned deck on his shelf is a surprise, and of course Aomine _has_ to see what it is. If Kagami didn't want visitors looking at it, he should have hidden it.

He pulls his gear bag closer and finds a jack that fits -- it's a newer model that the simulated life developers have been pushing onto everyone like they're going out of business. He snaps the VR gear shut on the back of his head and dives.

*

He's in a white room -- the kind of white developers put in before they add background detail. Gridlines of varying increments and line thicknesses in the background lurk just behind the white, waiting to be pulled out. _An unfinished deck?_

As Aomine's consciousness catches up with the environment, he feels restraints across his chest and back, around his arms and legs. Chair. He's bound to a sturdy wooden chair, just tight enough not to be able to move, but not tight enough to fuck with circulation. He started out looking down -- by design or accident, he's not sure -- and he notices a toolbox next to the chair. It's Kagami's -- that's what he uses in official games, too. Some people have surgical or carpentry sets, others high-end automotive or make-up kits, yet others have gardening sheds -- everyone chooses their own set of tools for manipulating code within the game. Aomine carries a multi-function knife. Kagami has a box full of householdy stuff. Screwdrivers, an electric drill, a level, a flashlight, hammers and nails. Aomine never knew Kagami did any programming outside the circuit, and it irritates him for some reason.

Inside one of the box compartments is a simple red on/off switch set to _on_ , and Aomine would bet his left arm that if he could flip it, he wouldn't be bound any more -- but he would have to fall over in the chair to do that -- if he could get near enough the switch with his teeth, he could flip it and make the bonds vanish. The chair is bolted to the floor, though. There's probably a verbal command that'll get the switch, but of course only the dev would know it. He had been expecting something raunchy and possibly illegal, but of course Kagami would fill his spare time with innocent Houdini shit like this. 

He looks up, and what he sees makes him permanently reconsider the thought he just had.

It's Aomine -- he's looking at himself. Not his official in-game avatar that's got sponsor logos tattooed on its skin, but him as he is in the flesh. Only his doppelganger is wearing a French maid's outfit barely past his knees and black stockings with no shoes. He looks irritated as fuck. Aomine can relate. _Wow, so Kagami has a vindictive streak, huh. Bet he laughs about this every time he sees me._

The other Aomine rolls his eyes, his expression changing from annoyance to whatever-I-don't-care, and he reaches behind himself to untie the ruffled white apron, removes it, and drops it to the floor with a disgusted look. The mini-dress, buttoned in the front, follows suit -- and Aomine is as clumsy with these buttons as he is with real-life buttons. _How would Kagami know that?_

What gets Aomine is that his double isn't blushing or simpering or making any weird seduction-routine faces, he's just taking off the dress, clearly displeased -- exactly as he would behave if it were to happen. So it's not a sex thing -- or maybe not yet a sex thing. Since this is obviously unfinished, maybe it was easier to start with base spec. A very good spec, too -- Aomine's replica is so well-done that there are moments he is surprised to find himself in the chair rather than undressing in front of a mirror.

The other Aomine throws the dress to the ground and looks down. He's wearing a garter belt -- just the belt, no panties -- that covers absolutely nothing, and Aomine instantly knows who hacked into his specs rack last month. There is absolutely no way anyone could reproduce his dick so faithfully unless he had an original reference.

His double looks directly at him and smiles a smile full of unpleasant promises.

"Stop," Aomine says, but no sound comes out. The environment is so incomplete it can only process coding commands right now, and Aomine doesn't know Kagami's.

He should leave. He knows that; he knows this isn't going to end well for him, but at the same time he wants to know just how far Kagami took this. He needs to know. This is a private, custom deck, so the pre-game activity logs won't show what went on inside. Sure, it's a form of trespass but what he sees is also a form of trespass, isn't it? It doesn't matter that Aomine would never have seen it if he didn't plug into the deck without permission.

What really gets him is that if this was what Kagami wanted, why didn't he just pay him? Aomine doesn't come cheap -- only other pro players could even think about trying -- but Kagami can afford him. Before today, Aomine might not even have refused.

The other Aomine begins walking unhurriedly towards him. The white environment fades out with a _pop_ and Aomine finds himself back in Kagami's quarters. The sports drink bottle lies on its side a few paces away, its contents spilling onto the cement. _Busted._

"Well, that was a fun time," he says to Kagami. "DId you design me yourself?"

Kagami places Aomine's gear in his lap, moving like he's barely restraining himself from causing bodily harm. "Leave."

Aomine gets up on his feet and steps real close, close enough to smell Kagami, to feel the shame rolling off him in hot waves. "If you throw the game, I'll wear that outfit for you. I'll even let you take it off me."

Kagami's lower jaw trembles with fury. "Get. Out. Now."

"I'll let you take it off with your _teeth_ ," Aomine calls over his shoulder, laughing. What a chump. Having sex fantasies about his rivals but not the balls to follow through.

*

_Aomine expected star-struck awe, but the new guy just sizes him up like they're equals. The fucking nerve._

_"I'm Aomine," he says, walking by. "Let's not get along."_

_"Kagami," the new guy says. "Sounds perfect. I hate your type the most."_

_Aomine's eyebrows shoot so far up his face they'd fly away if they weren't attached. He whirls around and squares Kagami with his most terrifying look -- and finds him grinning. "You're pretty vain for a big shot, aren't you?"_

Aomine squeezes his eyes shut. He went over to Kagami's club an hour ago, having thought of some good zingers based on what he learned last week, but was turned away at the door. The bouncer, despite being a three-hundred-pound shaven-headed woman, was very properly-spoken, but _our players are our priority, and Kagami says you're no longer welcome here._

He could initiate a conflict resolution through management, but why? He can see Kagami whenever he likes online. Sure, it's hard to see how flustered he gets with those logos tattooed on his avatar's face, but Aomine could always take the footage of those encounters and reprogram a blushing Kagami into them if he wanted to see him. He plugs into his sandbox and does just that for a good three hours: calling up past encounters from the public record and wiping the avatar logos so he can see Kagami's whole face. He's doing it out of sheer spite, but when he's done, he only wants to see Kagami's face again, his real face, and pinch his cheek. Kagami _hates_ that.

He gets online and wanders over to the in-world practice arena -- tomorrow's game is a standard dungeon dive, medieval dragons and swords and the like -- but no one's seen Kagami or heard from him today. Not unusual. Lots of players spend the day before the game offline.

_"Getting in my way before game day, as usual," Aomine says, catching up to Kagami on the narrow dirt road into the army base._

_Kagami steps sideways onto the sand. A scorpion immediately scuttles towards him; Kagami crushes it underfoot without even looking. "Fine. I'm gonna win tomorrow anyway, so you can go. I'll let you have first shot here."_

_"What did you say?" Aomine back-steps onto the other side of the road, triggering another scorpion attack. He draws his weapon and pulverises the critter. Sand flies everywhere._

Fine, so maybe Kagami's been acting weird and avoiding him completely. What's it to Aomine? If Kagami's gonna be all sensitive about his little secret fantasy world where Aomine wears dresses, let him. What kind of fucking weirdo uses people's specs like that? Sure, there's no harm in it, but why be a pansy? He should've just told Aomine he wanted to fuck. Maybe Aomine would've even done it for free. Kagami isn't bad looking, especially with his shirt off.

*

Aomine is knocked out on the ninety-sixth level after his last team member bails rather than fight the boss. The boss -- a nine-headed lesser dragon with every elemental breath ability -- makes short work of Aomine as he struggles to ready a shield spell, having run out of scrolls. Kagami loses a swordfight with an insanely overpowered ogre on the 98th, and Akashi takes the championship _again_. Fucking Akashi.

Post-game, the social networks are a circus as usual, fans taking the fight to each other, the usual accusations of Akashi doping because no one that scrawny should be that good. Aomine uses his incognito hour -- the one hour per day he's allotted to roam the VR world unseen -- to search for Kagami, but either Kagami's picked the same time to be incognito or he's not around again.

Annoyed beyond belief, Aomine unplugs and goes back to Kagami's club. Doing better than Aomine this time had to have improved his mood at least a little bit; how the hell long was he going to pout for?

"I know you can't let me in, but call him down. I'll wait."

"I can't," the bouncer says. "He's gone -- retired."

Aomine's heart sinks clean through the ground. "Retired?"

She nods. "He was always going to quit after this tournament; put the notice in last year. You know the story. Loves gaming, hates the business. He's gone back home, somewhere out west."

"The handlers let him leave just like that?"

"They've been keeping a lid on it because they thought they could change his mind, but if you ask me he's been done with this scene for years. A shame, really. He's a good guy."

Kagami never said a word about retiring to Aomine. Not even a hint. _Well, why would he have? We're the opposite of friends._

"They're not announcing it?" he asks. _Maybe there's reason to believe he'll come back._

"They haven't hired a replacement yet."

Aomine nods. The company can't keep it a secret that Kagami's gone, but they can dismiss everything as a rumour until they're good and ready. Rumours surround all the pros no matter what they do -- why, just the other day everyone was talking about how Aomine's foster sister Satsuki and her longtime rival Aida Riko were going out. He checked with Satsuki just in case, but she laughed for a week and then shut the door in his face.

On the way home, he thinks about Kagami's replacement. What kind of person will it be? Someone completely different -- maybe a short cute girl with dimples and a mean right hook. Or will they try to find someone to fill Kagami's shoes? Someone who has no respect for reputation, only ability. Someone who doesn't mind rough-housing but at the same time hates having his personal space invaded. Kagami always got weirdly tongue-tied if Aomine got too close. 

Players retired all the time -- Aomine has seen dozens go just during his ten years on the circuit, but Kagami leaving feels like the end. Of what, he's not sure, and he's certainly not going to dwell on it. He has no time for weak-spirited guys.

*

"He's not back, if that's what you're here for," the bouncer tells him when he returns to the club a month later.

Yesterday, they announced Kagami's replacement -- some musclebound unknown named Yamazaki. Aomine paid him a visit in the VR press room, hoping to find the rival he's been missing, but Yamazaki fell all over himself when he walked in, stars in his eyes. For that one to be any fun, Aomine would have to wait. He didn't want to wait.

"I wanna see if I can't talk him into coming back, so I was hoping he left an address," Aomine says.

She shakes her head. "Not for you. But he did leave something else for you -- they sent it down when they were cleaning out his rooms the other day. Wait here." 

She returns carrying the white custom deck with the blue dot. "Dunno what's on it; it's keyed to your jack. Zapped the floor manager real good when she tried to hook into it."

Aomine brings it home and stares at it for a good long while. He's not sure he wants to see it again, but he needs to, if only to stop feeling responsible for Kagami's abrupt departure. He did put the notice in long before it happened, but still. Maybe he would have hung around for the post-game fan meet-and-greets at least. He had a lot of friends on the circuit, though from what Aomine's gathered talking to a couple of them, Kagami said good-bye to everyone properly. He even visited Kise out in the dead zone. Aomine's the only one he seems to have ignored completely -- but now there is this damn no-label deck.

Aomine plugs in and surfaces in a torch-lit dungeon room, just like the ones in their last official game. Although that was over a month ago, his fingers twitch towards the nonexistent belt pouch where war mages keep their spellbooks. There's no danger in this room, though: there's only a high shelf with a cloth sack with a rough parchment note stuck with wax to the soft leather cord that holds it closed.

`Sorry` is all the note says. The sack contains a source code cube. Aomine calls up his tool knife, splits off a part of the environment into white nothing and compiles the code there. He knows what the code is for, so he doesn't need to wonder what the variable name SafeWord means. He resets the original holding cell, wiping it -- and his own rendering. When he regains consciousness, he's once again tied to a chair, but this time it's a plush, soft armchair in an unfamiliar room -- off to the left is a low table with some cushions for sitting, underneath a large window overlooking a country garden. To the right is an overstuffed sofa. _He finished it._

In the middle of the room is Aomine's doppelganger, dressed like a maid. It's a little too warm in the room, and just as the real Aomine starts sweating, his double starts undressing -- he knows this part really well; he's gone over it in his head far too many times. It's disturbing how hot it makes him to think about undressing for Kagami like that. Sometime between seeing this and now, Aomine's grown himself a small but persistent crush. You have to admire a guy who can kick your ass in a gunfight and then break into your VR server to steal your specs so he can render you faithfully into a sexbot.

When the smile that promises terrible things appears on VR-Aomine's face and he begins to walk towards the chair, Aomine waits for the bonds to come undone -- if this is the finished product, that's the point, right? He's not exactly thrilled to have simulated sex with himself based on someone else's fantasy, but he's curious what Kagami _thinks_ he's like in bed.

The other Aomine puts both hands on Aomine's shoulders, and still the restraints remain in place. VR-Aomine leans down close and murmurs, "Taiga."

The simulation ends there.

_Taiga? Like the Russian forest? What the fuck?_

"Taiga," Aomine murmurs. Wasn't it that battle royale style brawl eight or so years ago, set in pre-war Russia -- no, that was in a tundra. That was the first time they teamed up at the start because everyone else teamed up against them, hoping to take them out. Kagami won that one -- pretended to doze off by his campfire one night after they got all the rest of them and split up, and when Aomine came to kill him, he struck first.

He plugs into a live reference deck but can't find any joint games they had in a taiga environment. On his way back from the vault, pissed off and heartsick -- because remembering all those times they've faced each other is the worst now that they'll never do it again -- he spots an article about Kagami's retirement.

_Kagami Taiga, long beloved as a household name and one of the strongest players in a generation--_

Kagami Taiga. He knew Kagami's given name, of course, but he's never used it. So all that happened in that deck was that Aomine took off his clothes and said Kagami's _name_? No sexbot stuff, not even inappropriate touching? Then why did Kagami get so mad at him?

Aomine dives back into the white deck, safewords out into the source code dungeon, and tests the code. The newest part is the environment -- couch, window, armchair, plus the security subroutine that locks anyone but Aomine out. Nothing else has been touched. No telltale jagged breaks where parts of the code might've been cut away with the scissors from Kagami's toolbox. Kagami is good, but he's not good enough to hide evidence of missing code -- no one is that good; VR code is not written, it's imagined.

There's only one reason why Kagami would get upset enough to kick Aomine out of his club forever and leave town without saying good-bye. It's because he thought Aomine saw the whole thing and was making fun of his feelings. As tough as Kagami was, he was always easily rattled -- too easily, when it came to Aomine. Now he understands what should have been self-evident to him if he ever had a reason to notice. _Kagami actually_ liked _me._

_This_ is why he couldn't stop the chorus of _he's not like that_ running through his head these past few weeks. Because Kagami _isn't_ like that. He's not the type of guy to make a person into a sexbot. He just wrote a little snippet of a virtual boyfriend sim for himself, because for all the lip he gave Aomine, he likely knew he didn't have a chance. And Aomine ruined it by discovering it and added insult to injury by assuming Kagami was just a pervert. Well, he _is_ a pervert, putting maid outfits on people. Just not as much of a pervert as Aomine thought.

_When was the last time anyone liked me?_

_When was the last time I let anyone close enough to notice if they did?_

Worst of all, Aomine liked him too. When he went to visit Kagami in the club before games, he didn't just want to see Kagami's hilarious reactions to getting taunted. He wanted to see Kagami. He never visited anyone else like that, even though if he's honest, there are plenty of people he can get a rise out of. Midorima, for one -- he acts all high-and-mighty, but put one finger on his lucky item du jour and he'll get in your face in no time at all.

It was fun watching Kagami get all angry and frustrated because he was looking at Kagami, because having an effect on Kagami pleased him. Here he sits, a grown-ass man, realising that he's never ascended from the pigtail-pulling level of romance. These days even three-year-olds know that upsetting the person you like is a stupid idea, but Aomine's never liked anyone before.

*

"Aomine!" yells a reporter. "A word?"

"Sure," Aomine calls. A week of just wearing the maid outfit everywhere in VR hasn't done anything, so it's time to move on to Stage Two.

"First let's be clear that I'm acting and speaking as an individual and not a representative of Aegis Pro," Aomine says to the reporter. Behind her, the revolving door from the pre-screening area to the players' public lounge starts moving faster than he's ever seen it go, and other reporters stampede towards him. His protective barrier activates automatically as they get closer.

"Of course," the reporter says. "A personal, unofficial interview."

Obviously. Everyone has read Aomine's statement last week -- that he was about to do something strange and that it would in no way indicate unsound or impaired judgement. His medical and drug screen results were a matter of public record. Aegis would never let any other player get away with causing so much trouble, but Aomine is Aomine. The sponsors can't say shit because he's using his regular avatar, not the tattooed one. If a company tried to claim ownership over a player's existence, fans would put it out of business faster than lightning splits a tree.

"I'm doing this to get the attention of a specific person," Aomine says to the gathered crowd of reporters. "When that person contacts me, I'll stop."

"Who is this person?"

"Finally a love interest?"

"Won't your fans be upset if you start dating someone?"

"Ah, could it possibly be a fan?"

"Has a fan won your heart?"

"Is it me? It's me, isn't it? I'm right here! I've made contact!"

"Does that mean you'll strip right there?"

"That's all," Aomine says. "I'll be waiting for the next game announcement in the private lounge." Aomine walks away, tuning out the rest of the chorus. They would all shit themselves if they knew.

His comm bracelet chimes. "You're really persistent," says the bouncer from Kagami's old club from the tiny projection. "But you look cute in that outfit so I might have accidentally uploaded the interview to his fanmail room. He's been offline since he left, but he does check that when new stuff comes in."

"I have no idea what you're talking about," Aomine says with a faint smile. She grins back and cuts the feed.

Thirty minutes to the announcement, people are starting to show up in the private lounge -- though it's more of an arena than a lounge, since it's open to players from all companies. Aomine sits on the Aegis Pro couches with his hands behind his back and his legs spread -- he's wearing normal boxers, not a garter belt, and doesn't give a shit if someone looks at his avatar's pants. None of the others really care about the outfit -- players are pulling outrageous stunts all the time, it's part of the game for a lot of them. Of course Aomine's image until now was that he didn't need stunts to get attention; for him it was enough to just show up. 

He doesn't care as long as it gets him what he wants. All's fair in love and war, the ends justify the means -- that kind of thing.

A fluffy black-and-white puppy hops up on the couch next to him. "You are being such a fucking asshole about this, Aomine."

"I thought you didn't like dogs," Aomine says.

"I don't. This was all I had available that doesn't look like me."

"I'm not gonna ask."

"Good, because I wouldn't tell you."

"Why are you so mad? I went to all this trouble for you." Aomine gestures at the outfit.

"If anyone finds out I'm the one you're trying to lure out, they will hound me for the rest of my life to take pity on your crossdressing ass."

"You like my crossdressing ass though," Aomine points out.

"Shut up. I'm gonna get down on the floor and start barking directly at your crotch, see what the reporters make of _that_."

"Where are you?"

"What?"

"Tell me where you are. I'm gonna come over and take you somewhere nice."

"Quit fucking around."

"I'm not fucking around," Aomine says and looks directly into Kagami's eyes. It's difficult to do this with a straight face, because Kagami is a fucking blue-eyed puppy, but he manages. "We should talk. Live."

Kagami looks away. "I'll send you an address." He jumps down from the couch and trots off towards the exit.

Aomine barely listens to the announcement -- the next tournament's gonna start at some underwater paradise gone wrong -- and when it's done, he unplugs, gets some clothes for his gear bag from the fabric printer in the back of the club, and heads for the underground train platform.

*

After a four-hour train ride and another thirty minutes on a weatherproof funicular up a scorched mountainside, Aomine begins to wonder if Kagami didn't just send him the address to some remote souvenir shop for people stupid and rich enough to attempt the ancient sport of tourism. That was when people went around visiting other countries, back when there were hundreds of languages and countries instead of six, and when most of the planet wasn't destroyed by napalm, sunk underwater, or both.

Then he steps underneath a natural archway and finds himself in a small garden. He knows it's not a real garden because the sky above it is a brilliant blue, and the real sky is never blue; the radiation barrier made to look like thick white clouds makes sure of that. He knows it's not a real garden, but it looks and smells so real that he has to wonder if he's not plugged in. He performs the unplug sequence in his mind, adding the gestures just in case, but remains standing on a cobblestone pathway that leads to a small house ringed by pine trees.

Aomine tries to look past the VR-projection, but can't. All he sees are trees and flowers and shrubs and goddamn butterflies. Birdsong is coming from a speaker somewhere, but it's hard to believe it's a speaker because he can _smell_ the leaves and freshly cut grass and laundry drying on a line stretched out between two pines. _This is the kind of life retiring as a pro buys you, huh._

He walks up to the house and rings the doorbell. The glass-panelled door swings open, and a housebot instructs him to please remove his shoes before entering. _How old-fashioned._

The bot escorts him down a short corridor with polished mahogany floors into a bright, airy room Aomine recognises from Kagami's deck. Window with a view to the garden, cushions around the low table, overstuffed sofa, that one armchair. The only new thing is the entertainment system stretched along the wall behind the chair. Kagami's on the floor next to it, tinkering with a set of gear Aomine hasn't seen before.

"Hey," Aomine says. Now that he's here, he's kind of scared.

Kagami drops the gear, startled, and turns to look at him. "W-what are you doing here?"

"You gave me your address," Aomine says, frowning. "So I came."

"Oh." Kagami rises. "I didn't think you were going to come."

"Why not?" _If you didn't think I was going to come, why would you tell me the coordinates?_

Kagami shrugs. "Why would you?"

_Ouch._ "Anyway, this place is amazing. Never figured you for the smart frugal type."

"I'm not, that's why I found an accountant. She skims two per cent for herself on top of her pay but I let her, because she's good. Better than pissing it away on gambling."

"It's called playing the market."

"Like I said, gambling. So why are you here? Are you hungry?"

The housebot rolls up to the threshold, where Aomine still stands frozen. "Your new cookbook has finished downloading. Would you like to select tomorrow's menu so we may start acquiring the ingredients?"

"Remind me tomorrow morning. I'll just make some rice porridge for breakfast."

"You cook?" Aomine asks.

Kagami gives him an annoyed look. "Yeah, so?"

"Nothing. I came here thinking I was gonna ask you out, but why don't we just get married?"

"Oh, funny." Kagami's eyes widen. "You what?"

"I didn't see the whole thing last time," Aomine says. "Your deck. You know the one. I thought it was a sexbot."

Kagami's eyebrows draw together. "I wouldn't--"

"I _know_ that. I figured it out. I get it." Aomine really hopes to avoid having to spell things out here, because he's already more embarrassed than he was wearing the goddamn maid outfit in public for the first time. But Kagami still looks so suspicious and confused that he's pretty sure this vague shit won't cut it.

He crosses the threshold and walks right up to Kagami, who stands his ground even though his eyes look like he's about to have a baby.

"You're gonna make me say it, aren't you?" Aomine rubs his forehead with the back of his hand, hard. "I know what you want. I want you to have it. I want to give it to you." 

This isn't coming out right at all, so he leans in and kisses Kagami. That works out much better than talking: Kagami grabs the front of his sweatshirt in both hands and kisses him back. Aomine puts his arms around him. It's funny; Aomine's had a lot of sex, but he doesn't remember anything ever feeling like this. Just holding a person, two heartbeats next to each other. It's a vulnerable feeling, but Aomine doesn't hate it.

*

"I can't believe you walked around in that outfit for a week," Kagami says as he lets Aomine into the bedroom. It's bigger than the living room -- there's a VR chair by the window. The bed is huge and has four posts and a thick canopy that goes up and down like window blinds. They can pull it down and be completely sure no one can see them. 

He sits down on the bed and pulls Kagami in towards him. "There was one thing that you didn't get right -- I don't throw my clothes to the floor when I take them off, I wasn't raised in a barn." Actually, he was raised with Satsuki, and she helped him develop a conditioned response to throwing clothes on a floor. By yelling at him like her head was on fire.

"Well, excuse me for thinking you look like the barn type," Kagami says, putting his hands on Aomine's shoulders. "You do hate buttons, though, don't you?"

"I hate buttons," Aomine confirms as he slides his hands underneath Kagami's T-shirt. "I also hate clothes when they're on you. You should fix that."

"You fix it," Kagami tells him, blushing, and Aomine's pretty sure he's gonna have a heart attack.

*

Aomine wins the coin toss for bottom.

He's always been noisy in bed, but it was more to convince himself he's having a better time than he really is. With other people, he's never so much as groaned because he felt so good he had to, because he couldn't _not_ make a sound. Yet here he is, ass in the air, moaning like he's gonna die -- and he feels like he's going to die, and Kagami just keeps at him like he's got no limits, like he could keep fucking Aomine until they both die.

No sooner does Aomine think that than Kagami gives him the lie -- his grip on Aomine's hips tightens, and the way he cries out would make Aomine come if he had a hand on his dick, but he doesn't, and he's never been able to come untouched no matter how close he was. But then Kagami slides up between his legs, tugs his waist down, pulling him to all fours. His mouth is so soft and wet and good that Aomine _explodes_ , forgets where he is -- all he knows is _Kagami_ and that's what he whispers, eyes closed, as he comes down and falls over onto the bed.

The sheets are a cool whisper against his back, and the mattress is made of that stuff that moulds itself to you. Something tells Aomine he won't have trouble falling asleep here. When Kagami's fingers lace together with his, he becomes sure of it. Kagami's lying on his stomach next to him, his head turned the other way, towards the window.

"You can sleep here if you want," Kagami says. "Unless you have to go back."

"I don't have to, not yet. I'll sleep here."

Kagami turns his head on the pillow and looks at him. "And here I thought you were gonna take me out."

"I said I'd take you somewhere nice," Aomine counters. "Do you know anyplace nicer?"

Kagami rolls his eyes and turns away again. "Smooth talking fucker."

"Leave the 'talking' part out and you've got the title of my autobiography."

Kagami snorts. "At least you admit you're the only one who'd say that about you."

"What?"

"Autobiography is the one you write yourself, dummy."

Aomine smacks his bottom with a flat but light hand. "Takes one to know one, idiot." His hand lingers, and he works his thumb in between the cheeks. Kagami leans up into the touch, or maybe it's just Aomine's wishful thinking; his upper body doesn't move. "You said I was a smooth talker, that's a start."

Kagami lets go of his hand, stretches, and turns to his side, facing Aomine. "When does training start for the underwater thing?"

"Day after tomorrow." Shit -- that means they won't see each other for three months -- not live.

"I'm not moving back to the city," Kagami says.

Aomine was all but set on trying to convince Kagami to come back to the circuit, but now that he's been here, he can't. No one in their right mind should choose the city over this. A patch of fake blue sky is better than fake clouds without end.

He pulls Kagami to himself. "We can still hang out in VR. Or if I'm busy, you can make that maid deck into a sexbot. It's fine since I'll know about it."

"I won't have enough material to make a good one even if we do nothing but fuck for the next forty-eight hours."

Aomine scratches his head. "Well, there's no helping it. I'll lend you mine."

Kagami blinks. "Aomine."

"What?"

"You designed a deck so you could have sex with yourself?"

"Sure. Doesn't everyone?"

"No, I'm pretty sure everyone doesn't."

"Oh." Aomine shrugs. "Well, they don't know what they're missing. It's really hot."

Kagami snickers. "Can you patch it to add an extra interface?"

Aomine gathers Kagami up so his head is tucked under Aomine's chin. "You want to watch?"

"I want to join."

"I'm not sure I'm ready for that kind of commitment."

"Fuck you," Kagami murmurs. His lips are soft against Aomine's neck, and all the hairs on his nape rise into a shiver that lasts all the way down his back.

Aomine grins. "You just did."

Kagami licks his lips -- and with them, like an afterthought, Aomine's neck. "Fuck me, then." He pulls back for a long look into Aomine's eyes. As Aomine stares into his face, he knows he's already fallen so hard that should Kagami cut him loose tomorrow, he'll be nursing the heartbreak for years.

"You want me to fuck you." His voice comes out as though from a great distance; his head is full of Kagami, the things he wants to do with Kagami, the things he wants to do _to_ Kagami. It's real, it's here, and he's the most scared he's ever been.

Kagami bends closer and kisses him, breathy, wet, lusty. "Fuck me sloppy," he says after, panting, and his lips are against Aomine's ear this time; he's fucking figured out that Aomine can't get enough of Kagami's voice in his skin. If he knows that already, how long will it take him to notice the rest? "Fuck me till I can't _walk_ ," Kagami adds, and Aomine is about to lose it when he remembers that he still has one card to play.

"Okay," he says, grinning, leaning over the edge of the bed where he'd left his clothes and groping for his gear bag. "First I'm gonna need you to help me into a little outfit I like to wear when I fuck you."

If he's gonna lose this war, he'll at least win one last battle.

[end]


End file.
